1. Field
The present invention relates to a walking robot. More particularly, the present invention relates to a walking robot having an improved driving structure for a pitch-direction femoral joint and a knee joint.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of walking robots, such as a biped walking robot or a four-legged walking robot, have been developed for the purpose of household use, military use, or industrial use.
Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-50273 discloses a humanoid in the form of a biped walking robot.
The robot disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-50273 includes a body, a head provided at an upper end portion of the body, a pair of arms provided at both upper lateral sides of the body, and a pair of legs provided at both lower lateral sides of the body.
Each leg includes a femoral link connected to the body through a femoral joint performing 3-DOF (degree of freedom) movement, a lower leg link connected to the femoral link through a knee joint performing 1-DOF movement, and a foot connected to the lower leg link through an ankle link performing 2-DOF movement, so that the robot can perform 6-DOF movement. Accordingly, the robot can perform various actions using the legs as well as running and walking.
In particular, the running and walking of the robot can be realized by repeatedly rotating a pitch-direction femoral joint and a knee joint and a large impact is applied to the robot through the foot of the robot when the robot walks or runs on the ground. Such an impact can be attenuated by controlling the pitch-direction femoral joint, the knee joint, etc.
However, the joints, in particular, the pitch-direction femoral joint and the knee joint are independently driven by two actuators in the conventional walking robot, so the control mechanism may be complicated to effectively attenuate the impact.
In addition, the actuator for driving the knee joint is positioned adjacent to the knee joint in the conventional walking robot, so great inertial force is generated in the leg during walking and great load is applied to the actuator for driving the femoral joint.